Social networking is the name for any website where people interact with each other and build personal networks. It seems like there are more social networking websites every day. People love to participate in these sites and meet new people. Facebook and MySpace are the popular examples of this idea. People create free accounts, add their friends, post pictures and sometimes meet new people.

The internet has given people the opportunity to collaborate with people all over the globe and to “collect” thousands of acquaintances. Who could say that they had 10,000 “friends” before social networking sites?

Social [...]

Social networking needs to protect the privacy of the users. News travels through the internet so quickly, that it does not take long before everyone knows. With the rise of social networking, information travels even faster, and to a larger number of people. This is not something people have had to worry about in the past, and being a new problem, we are going to have to come up with a new solution.

Many people think that the government should implement privacy laws that social networking sites are forced to obey. That way, the users can trust the website [...]

Social networking with its powerful ‘socialization’ theme is rocking these days. Meeting with different like-minded people, sharing news, photos and videos and getting the latest information on different interest related subjects, has made social networking a favorite social activity. You could even call it a craze. Social networking has greatly influenced the WWW and introduced a new kind of web site – community based web sites. Not only are new social networking sites quickly populating the internet, domain specific sites are taking over too. For example, gaming sites and fitness sites are considered social networking based sites. The networking feature [...]

Gaming social networks are growing rapidly and attracting many internet users. I don’t know whether it was the success of social networking sites that attracted online games to add community features or the craze for online games that magnetized social networking sites to add online gaming features to their sites; but the fact is that online gaming social networks have become the most preferred way to socialize and have fun. “Social and gaming networks, once considered polar opposites, are cross-pollinating as online interactions replace prime-time TV and other, more traditional media experiences. Games like Kaneva are attracting players that games [...]

The launch of FriendFeed has started a new discussion about FriendFeed vs. Twitter. Social media and tech blogs have been discussing these two services lately. You will see posts like “FriendFeed vs. Twitter” and “FriendFeed Will Kill Twitter” on different social media blogs. Are FriendFeed and Twitter really competitors? Let’s check it out!

In FriendFeed v. Twitter: Half the Followers in Five Months, Michael Arrington describes his observations about Twitter and FriendFeed. He observes that FriendFeed is attracting Twitter users. He says,

“Twitter is still far larger than its much younger competitor FriendFeed in aggregate terms. But an interesting trend [...]

Flickr has been a renowned social networking used for image and video sharing site since February 2004. Flickr was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. It was among those first few websites that implemented the idea of web 2.0 applications that allow users to collaborate with each other by sharing and editing public contents.
 
Flickr allows users to share and edit photos, videos and organize content. By using Flickr, users can view contents according to their location and even create new content out of existing images. This content includes greeting cards, photos, books and calendars. Flickr is cited as one of [...]

It is said that Web 2.0 is all about people. If it is so, then I say that Web 2.0 is almost all about social networking. How? Web 2.0 features information sharing and collaboration among users on the internet. Social networking is about blogging, RSS feeds, social bookmarking and sharing of photos and videos. Surely Web 2.0 has laid the foundation stones of the development of web-based communities and hosted services. Eugene Barsky and Michelle Purdon define web 2.0 in their article, Introducing web 2.0: Social networking and social bookmarking for health libraries, as the social networking and bookmarking [...]

Shelfari is a social media website where a community of book readers is encouraged to discuss their books with friends and other users on the network. Users of Shelfari build their own bookshelves. It was the first social media site which focused on the books and is still bringing the readers from all around the globe on one platform. Shelfari is the place for the book lovers where they can catalog their books while socializing with other book readers. Shelfari makes it easy for book lovers by letting them catalog and organize the books in the Shelfari book shelf. It’s [...]

Web videos are a quickly growing online trend. It is the beginning of new era on the internet as the entertainment industry is now embracing the web. The idea of watching popular TV shows and your favorite movies anytime and at no cost is simply amazing. Chatting with friends on IM, sharing something interesting on social networking sites and watching television online is the real web entertainment experience. The emerging online video services have made it possible. A few of the popular online video services are YouTube, Flickr and Hulu. It is being said that Hulu is the best video [...]

Social networking sites are buzzing these days with the news – the Yahoo!Mash network is closing. Yes, it’s true. Yahoo! community manager, Matt Warburton, has officially announced that this service will not be available after September 29, 2008. Below is his e-mail, issued to all members in the Mash network.

Dear Yahoo! Mash member,

Thank you for trying out our Mash Beta service. We hope you had fun with it.
Please note that we will shut down Mash on September 29, 2008. As a result, your current profile on Mash will no longer be available. We strongly recommend that you return to [...]